When Norwegian vocalist Peter Espevoll (Extol) and Australian producer Jon Reichardt decided to join forces in the form of InTheosis nobody could have expected they’d find common ground, but the way they have used music as healer (and tormentor) have strengthened the collaboration. TGEFM was super lucky to spend some time chatting with the duo. Check it out here!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the release of the “Purge(d)” single. What should TGEFM readers know about InTheosis, your history, formation and ethos? What’s next for the band?
Our pleasure! Thank you!
Intheosis is an international duo (Peter’s based in Norway and Jon in Australia), we met in 2017 at a mutual friend’s bachelor party, we only started the project earlier this year and our next single will include a feature vocalist. Our ethos is really just to make music we love. Sounds simple enough, but it’s easy to get caught up in monetising your art and trying to reach certain benchmarks rather than simply enjoying the creative process itself.
Between Peter’s time in Extol and John’s work on so many great records, you’ve built yourselves quite the resume. What differences are you finding in this project compared to your past work? Does your previous work put added pressure that affects your writing and recording for InTheosis?
We’re very aware that we’re just two dads who love heavy music. In light of that the aim isn’t to become a massive touring band (although that would be fun if it happens!), it’s really just to make music we like that hopefully others will dig too.
As we’ve been a part of some pretty large projects in the past it’s definitely humbling ‘starting from scratch’ with this project but we’re not feeling pressure to meet any particular metrics of success.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
Karnivool is an amazing Western Australian band, Vower is a great new band on the horizon. We’ve been loving Spiritbox’s work. Jon has been feeling particularly patriotic about Australian bands like Northlane and Thornhill.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
We’ve very excited about our next single which will be a genre-hopping collaboration. We’re very grateful for the fans that have jumped on board so quickly, we have plenty of music coming!
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
